Distress Oxide Inks - A Review

Hello! - Lynn here today - I have been trying out Ranger's new Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks, to bring you this review, and a few ideas of what you can create with them. I'm really pleased with the results and love the many effects.

Distress Oxide Ink is a fusion of die and pigment ink, which can be used by itself or mixed with other products. The ink is reactive with water and the resulting oxidization process produces a chalky effect - it feels and looks chalky but will not rub off the surface as chalk would. The more water added to the ink the more the dye seeps out.

The oxide ink is shiny when wet but dries opaque so can be used on dark backgrounds (see below for samples). Just like the Distress Inks, Oxide pads are felt and not foam like most pigment based inks, this means they are a good firm surface to work from.

Once dry the inked surface can be written or stamped onto. You can also stamp images with these new inks. The Oxide Ink takes a little longer to dry than dye inks, so is ideal for heat embossing. 
Water can be added to the ink once applied to the work surface. Water can also be added to your card once the ink has been applied.

The Distress oxide ink pad will appear to be stained if you touch it against another colour, but this can be wiped off.

There are twelve colours available - so far.... Work Lipstick, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Peeled Paint, Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Wilted Violet, Iced Spruce, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

From this image you can see the similarities and differences in the Distress Oxide Ink and Distress Ink pads. The new inks come in the same containers, but they are grey instead of black, so easy to spot in your collection.

I created these Ink swatches using the excellent set of printable blanks, designed by Jennifer McGuire - free and downloadable from her blog. The image below shows the new Oxide Inks compared to the Distress Inks when swiped onto white card. The effect is more vibrant and solid.

Below you can compare the use of the opaque oxide inks swiped onto white, black and kraft card. The effect varies slightly but good colour is achieved on all surfaces.

Stamping with Distress Oxide Inks

You can see the ink clearly on the stamp itself and you get a nice solid crisp image which can be heat embossed. If you add a little water to the stamped image it will start to oxidise and gives a unique chalky finish. See the three samples below.

Stamped in Fired Brick

Stamped as before and embossed

Stamped and spritzed with water

Creating Backgrounds

Backgrounds can be created by adding some of the ink to the work surface. This is then spritzed with water before dragging the surface of the card through it. Dry the card with the heat tool and spritz with water. The card can be swiped through the ink on the work surface again and again, as long as it is dried each time. You will be building up layers rather than mixing the colours together which could cause a muddy effect. Keep going until you are happy with the effect. 

I stated off using three colours each time and then tried one using a rainbow of colours. 

For more than three colours, the combination was more easily controlled using a glass work surface than a soft mat. This could also be done on a large acrylic stamping block.

All of the above once finished and dry.

Colour wash
To create this effect place some ink onto the work surface and make it wet before using a brush to apply the colour wash to the paper. This wet ink can then be used to create a background or to colour a stamped image. Of course you can do this with the original inks and there is room for both with different results. You get a smoother more opaque finish with the oxide inks and of course you can layer more of the same colour to make it more intense. I tried out a few different colour wash backgrounds. 

Another way of achieving this type of effect is to apply the ink to the paper directly from the ink pad. Take a wet paintbrush and create the wash effect by brushing through the ink with plenty of water.

For the following card I added the Fossilized Amber and spritzed it letting the watery ink run before drying it. Then I repeated the process with a little less ink each time using Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

Blending 

The original Distress Inks are excellent for blending with, but you need to try this with the Oxide Inks to be amazed at how much smoother it is.  Using a mini blending tool and a fresh felt pad for the Distress Oxide colour. You will find they blend very well with no marks or hard edges due to the pigment ink in the mix.

Confetti Effect
This was created by adding colour to the work surface, then dipping in a wet brush and flicking it over the paper. It is important to use and dry one colour at a time to prevent the colours running into one another. 

StencilsUse a blending tool to work ink through a stencil onto card, heat set with a heat tool, then spritz with water and dry again. This is quick to do and gives a luminous effect too to the colour.

Inked and heat set

Spritzed with water

Any of the above finished surface can be stamped onto with Archival Ink.

Here are some of my finished cards made from my experiments:

Other items available from Papermaze which I used to make up the cards:
Spellbinders dies, Crafters Companion Dies, Memory Box dies, Tim Holtz/Sizzix - Thinlits dies, PaperArtsy Stamps by JOFY, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stamps, Tim Holtz Layering Stencils.

I found using these inks great fun and so inspiring, the more I created with them the more I wanted to try out - the possibilities are endless! I think they will be appearing in future blog posts.

Thanks for Looking
Lynn x